Some shots from a recent model test with Diana. The last shot was a lighting test shot... and at the time I thought "the light is crap, now what?" In moving some lighting, I snapped a plastic housing on a monolight... tried a ringflash... snapped a plastic tightening knob on that... so moved to the window for some backlighting, and lastly to the wall with diffused light from the window coming in from her right.

In the end... what did I learn? The initial lighting looked pretty good and I should not have abandoned my initial setup so quickly. And secondly, you have to have durable, reliable gear. That's why made the switch to Profoto Acute2 1200R... and window light. I'm loving both, though the window light is significantly less expensive.

Here's a short video I put together with some of the random footage and stills from one of Sarah's tests. Based on this first try, we have a much better idea of how to document the entire process. I just want to thank Chase Jarvis for continual inspiration. His "Frames" pieces gave me the idea to work with all of the frames of the shoot... for better or worse. It's difficult to throw every shot out there–where people can see just how bad some of them really are. I look at some of my choices and wonder "what was I thinking?"

This was our last look, it was getting late, and we lost natural light in the studio. So, we had to set up a KinoFlo Diva Light for Daryon (Makeup Artist).
This shot was unplanned, and actually off-set. I had the 5D rigged to a ringflash and couldn't use it... so I grabbed a RebelXT. Not a bad result, but check out the fringing (Chromatic Aberration) under the chin.
Just proves... two cameras is a must.